Acute Laryngitis.—­Inhalations and sprays.

Menthol 10 grains
Oil of pine 1 dram
Tincture of benzion 1 dram
Liquid alboline 2 ounces

Make a solution.  Use one teaspoonful in a pint of boiling water; inhale with a cone placed over the dish or put a shawl over the head and dish and inhale the steam.  Or this one to inhale same way: 

Tincture of benzoin 1 dram
Oil of tar 1 drain
Liquid alboline 2 ounces

Make a solution and use one teaspoonful to a pint of boiling water as above.

It may be necessary in order to save life, to have a physician make an opening by incision into the windpipe for the admission of air into the lungs.  This process is called Tracheotomy.

Diet in Laryngitis.—­Hard and dry toasts should be avoided, for they give pain on being swallowed, same reason applies to highly seasoned foods.  Milk, custards, eggs, scraped beef may be taken.  Difficulty in swallowing may be overcome by allowing the patient to lie flat on the bed, etc., with his face over the edge.  Food can be sucked through the tube from a vessel placed below; or the patient can lean forward while eating.

“Child crowing” (Spasm of the Glottis.)—­This is usually peculiar to children.

[Respiratory diseases 27]

Cause.—­It is purely a nervous affection and it occurs between six months and three years, and is most commonly seen in children with rickets.

Symptoms.—­It may come in the night or day; or when the child awakes.  The breathing is arrested, the child struggles for breath, the face is flushed, and then with a sudden relaxation of the spasm, the air is drawn into the lungs with a high pitched crowing sound.  Convulsions may occur.  Death rarely occurs.  There may be many attacks during the day.

Physicians’ treatment of Child Crowing.  Preventive.—­The gums should be carefully examined and if they are swollen and hot they should be lanced.  The bowels should be carefully regulated, and as these children are usually of a delicate nature and afflicted with rickets, nourishing food and the treatment in diet and medicine should be given for rickets.  Cod liver oil is a good general remedy. (See rickets).

Cold Sponging.—­In severe cases, the child should be placed in a warm bath tub and the back and chest thoroughly sponged for a minute or two with cold water.  This plan may be used even when a child is in a paroxysm, though the attack is severe and the child looks blue, it is much better than to dash cold water in the face.  Sometimes the attack can be stopped by introducing the finger far back into the throat.

Croup, Spasmodic.—­This disease gives the parents a terrible shock if they have never seen any attacks of the kind.  The symptoms which attend the attack are out of all proportion to the real danger.  It is generally the result of exposure to cold or to the cold wind.  Irritating, undigested food, often causes it.